The class of 2007: career plans and expectations

Summary
Entry into the graduate job market
Applications to employers
Career area preferences
Salary expectations
Aspirations for the future
Footnote
References

Summary

A recent survey has revealed that two in five finalists are planning to join the graduate job market this year after completing their course, writes Pearl Mok from the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU). The average starting salary expected is £21,700, 6.8% higher than last year’s expectation, and students’ confidence in the graduate job market continues to increase.

Entry into the graduate job market

Just under a quarter of this year’s university leavers are expecting to start a full-time graduate job at the end of their degree, according to the latest UK Graduate Careers Survey from High Fliers Research [1].

The study - of 17,170 final year students from 30 universities in the UK - reveals that for the second year running, 24% of the finalists surveyed are expecting to start a graduate job, with an additional 16% expecting to be looking for one after completing their study. This suggests that two in five (40%) graduates from the class of 2007 are planning to join the graduate job market this year.

Looking at trends over the last ten years, the proportions of finalists expecting to join the graduate job market immediately following graduation had dropped from a high of 49% in 1998 to a low of 35% in 2004. Although numbers have increased again since, there is still a significantly lower proportion of finalists aiming for graduate-level jobs today than there were in the late 1990s. Finalists’ confidence in the graduate job market is certainly on the up, however: 23% of respondents in this year’s survey said they believed there are ‘plenty of jobs for finalists leaving university this summer’, compared with 17% in 2005 and 10% in 2003.

For those 2007 graduates who have no immediate plans to join the graduate job market, just under a quarter (24%) intend to do a postgraduate course, 8% expect to take up voluntary or temporary work, one in six (16%) plan to take time off or go travelling and one in eight (12%) have no definite plans.

Applications to employers

By the time the High Fliers survey took place at the end of February 2007, a total of 53% of finalists had made at least one application to a graduate employer, compared with 47% at the same time a year ago. Students made an average of 5.7 applications each, which is a little higher than last year.

Another survey of 24,507 students from 111 higher education institutions in the UK by Trendence reveals that women are more likely than men to begin their job hunting earlier: more than a third of female respondents began their search for a first ‘career job’ before their final year of study, compared with just over a quarter of men [2]. The study also found that students aged 22 years or younger are more likely to embark on job hunting earlier than their older counterparts, although those aged 23 and over are slightly better represented amongst those who start looking for a job in the first year of their course. This latter finding could perhaps tie in with another observation from the study, which indicates that part-time students are a lot more likely than full-time students to start looking for a job during their first year, and it is known that part-time students are likely to be older. For example, 83.6% of the 2005 graduating cohort from part-time first degree courses were aged 25 or over, compared with only 15.4% for those from full-time programmes [3].

Career area preferences

Media, teaching, investment banking, marketing, accountancy and consulting are the top career sectors for 2007 finalists in the High Fliers survey, with over one in ten finalists having already applied for jobs in these areas or planning to do so later this year. Although the number of finalists applying to each of the 22 sectors covered in the study has seen a year-on-year increase, there have been decreases in the percentage shares in the level of interest in consulting (down 1% from 2006 level), research and development (3%), armed forces (10%), and IT (15%). The drop in the percentage share of interest in IT is of particular concern amid all the debate about skills shortages in the area.

Business management is the first choice of career area amongst students in the Trendence survey, with more than a fifth of respondents aiming to work in this field after completing their study. For those from the Russell Group of universities, however, marketing/advertising/PR is the top option, followed by finance and business management.

Salary expectations

Finalists in the High Fliers survey expect an average starting salary of £21,700, 6.8% higher than last year’s figure of £20,300. Although one in ten job hunters believed they could only command a modest £15,000 or less to begin with, almost a quarter of finalists thought they would earn at least £25,000 for their first job.

Finalists from law courses anticipate the highest initial salaries, averaging at £24,000. In contrast, those studying arts and humanities or languages expect more modest pay, averaging at £18,500 and £20,200 respectively.

Not only do men earn a higher salary, their salary expectations are also higher than those of women’s (see footnote). The Trendence survey reported that male students expect a starting salary of £23,313, compared with £21,204 for women a difference of almost 10%.

Aspirations for the future

Gaining a professional qualification and having a positive work-life balance were rated by job hunters in the High Fliers survey as the top two priorities in their first job. Looking further ahead, over three-quarters (77%) reported that they expect to own a house or flat by the time they reach 30 and over half (57%) expect to be married. Only 27% anticipate having reached a senior management position and one in seven (14%) having set up their own business.

Footnote

For example, the 2004/05 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey reported that for first degree UK-domiciled full-time male graduates working in the UK, the average salary was £18,534, and for female graduates, £17,184.

References

1. The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2007, produced by High Fliers Research in association with The Times.

2. UK Graduate Recruitment Review 2007, Trendence.

3. Analysis of 2004/05 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey data.

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